2014 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Sociiety” 0
Practice highway courtesy.
No arrests have been made, and the FBI has joined the investigation.
Police believe the pickup driver rammed Davison’s car into a grassy median, before the driver or perhaps a passenger shot him at about 2:10 a.m. The shooting occurred about 10 miles north of Hagerstown, Md.
Once Again, You Can Owe Your Soul to the Company Store (Updated) 0
Dave Johnson explains “workplace loans.” A nugget:
Workplace loans have very high interest rates, as much as 165% per year, and are repaid directly out of wages. So far only about 100,000 workers are being offered these scams by their companies, but at least half a dozen companies are marketing this “service” to employers.
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
Juanita Jean reports on a new twist to the scam in Texas. Not surprisingly, Rick Perry’s mitts are all over it.
Demonizing the Destitute 0
Llewellyn King, successful television producer and ex-unemployed person, explores how the “Haves” use myths of the “undeserving poor” to justify cruelty to the “Have-Nots.”
Unemployment means cold economic fear . . . .
Do read the rest.
Click Joints (Updated) 3
Don’t believe those “Likes.”
They are more of what George Smith calls the “Culture of Lickspittle.”
For as little as a half cent each click, websites hawk everything from LinkedIn connections to make members appear more employable to Soundcloud plays to influence record label interest.
Follow the link for more on how “social” media sites are fighting back, as well as the click-fakers’ justifications for fake clicks.
Addendum, Later That Evening:
Words fail me. (Not that I’m all that surprised, but, really, now.)
Still Hope for the Old Girl 0
Some good news.
(snip)
Donors from around the world contributed at least $205,000, and another $116,000 was raised by scrapping obsolete pieces of the ship that would have had to be cleared eventually by a developer, said Susan Gibbs, the conservancy’s executive director.
The influx of cash should cover the ship’s upkeep bills for the next six months or so. By that time, Gibbs said, there’s hope that a redevelopment deal will finally be close at hand.
You can see some pictures I took of her here.
Paradise Lost 0
Privilege means never having to admit or even to realize that you are privileged.
Roberts’s Rules 0
Dick Polman doesn’t have much patience with Chief Justice Roberts complaints that funding for the judicial system has been cut to the bone. Not much at all.
A snippet.
No kidding, Sherlock.
Read the rest.
QOTD 0
John Kenneth Galbraith:
The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character-building value of privation for the poor.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Because the aisles at Lowes are teaming with brigands (especially the lighting department) . . . .
Via Juanita Jean.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be sure to make a deposit of courtesy in the snow bank.
Bob Molinaro Has a Wonder 0
What’s the ratio between college basketball games on TV today and those worth watching?
Hmmmm. Games worth watching divided by games on TV today.
I can’t remember.
What happens when you divide into zero?
(Follow the link for his answer.)
Sexploitation 0
I have never been to a strip club.
Or to a “gentlemen’s club,” which, as near as I can tell, is a strip club with higher-priced drinks and better-dressed bouncers.
(There was the one bachelor’s party many years ago that almost got out of hand, but I was very young and just a spectator . . . .)
But I do think that this a good decision.
If you are going to exploit the girls, at least pay them fairly.
“Against Their Own Interests” 0
Lefties are fond of saying that this group or that group “voted against their own interests.” Invariably, they refer to economic interests.
I am sympathetic to those statements, because, as far as I can see, all politics is political economy. Qui bono ultimately lies behind all policy, but qui bono does not lie behind all votes. That’s why misdirection plays work so well in politics.
Heather Denkmire explores this quite nicely at the Bangor Daily News, a small paper with big writers.